Rushmore
"Rushmore" Directed by Wes Anderson, written by Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson; MPAA Rating: [R] for language and brief nudity. Run time 93 minutes. With Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Olivia Williams, Mason Gamble and Sara Tanaka.
"Rushmore" is an odd but winning combination of film themes - a dry, sardonic comedy about love and coming of age; an engaging, sometimes irritating look into the inner workings of the mind of a young Walter Mitty in full radiant flower of denial; and love and middle age seen through a glass dorkly. (No typo)
Jason Schwartzman is Max Fischer, a horn-rimmed 15 year-old unlikely scholarship student at an exclusive boy's school, Rushmore. He's not "gifted" in the usual sense. He finds himself on academic probation - his grades are truly miserable - but he has thrown all his efforts into several dozen extracurricular activities ranging from his eponymous theater group, The Max Fischer Players, to the Rushmore Beekeeping Club. His prime goal is to be a student for life at Rushmore. Max doesn't seem to realize or care that he's the mascot, poster boy and chief fund raiser for the Varsity Losers Team. He invents a neurosurgeon father to replace his dad the barber. Max's self image is warped, but heroic. Everyone knows, or has known, at least one Max Fischer.
The movie opens with Max dreaming, during a short snooze in chapel, that he's single-handedly solved the world's most vexing geometry equation, to the adulation of his peers. He snorts back to reality in time to hear a chapel address to the student body by Herman Blume, (Bill Murray) a depressed industrialist and benefactor to Rushmore. Max immediately attaches himself to Blume, and the two form an unlikely symbiotic relationship and eventual rivalry.
Enter Ms. Cross, (Olivia Williams) an elementary school teacher at Rushmore. Max talks himself into a blindingly lopsided love with Ms. Cross, who of course, diplomatically rebuffs his advances. Max, being totally out of touch with anything remotely resembling reality, refuses to take no for an answer. (Why does this sound familiar?) He's so purposely obsessive in his driven denial that you wonder if this whole movie is going to turn out to be an elaborate dream/flashback sequence. He goes so far as to con Blume into writing a check for the construction of a marine habitat at the school, (only because Ms. Cross has tropical fish in her classroom), and manages to make it as far as the ground breaking before the school administration finally catches on. (Max designed the aquarium to take over part of the baseball diamond) Max is expelled from Rushmore and goes back to the public school system, where he finally bottoms out, but rebounds and finds his true strengths are almost as good as the ones he's always imagined for himself.
In the meantime: Herman Blume falls head-over-failed marriage in love with Ms. Cross. When Max finds out, a battle of sophomoric one-upsmanship and retaliatory blackmail ensues between rivals Max and Blume. Neither of these characters has the maturity of a wheel of gouda, and the war between Max and Blume is a pissing match between two myopic lovesick adolescents. Fortunately, no one dies in the name of love, and Max and Blume slowly grow to understand the folly of their actions. Slowly.
That's about as understated a synopsis as I can manage for a film of such subtlety and complexity. There are moments when you just want to dope-slap both Max and Blume like they were responsible for Adam Sandler getting into show business, and there are times when they seem so isolated, so lost, that you feel the need to pin a name tag to their shirts and send them off to school. It's less "schadenfreude" than "farhvegnugen" - you don't so much get enjoyment from their misery as you revel in the ride itself.
Some of the best moments come in the pure absence of dialogue - Max has a dorky countenance that actually pulls the camera closer (further exaggerating his already exaggerated features - he looks like a spectacled sea bird pulled from an arctic oil spill) every time he stares vacantly into it. You'll find yourself wondering if perhaps Max's hamster has pulled up lame and the wheel has slowed to a squeaking crawl. But as Max's character develops, you begin to marvel at the logical complexity of his machinations.
Murray's Blume is sometimes awkward, sometimes a bit distant and occasionally goofy, but in the becalmed moments when he's searching for his next move, you find yourself holding your breath in anticipation. Agonizingly perfect timing.
Bill Murray is perfect for the role of an angry, unhappy man who has everything and yet somehow, nothing. Until Blume and Max butt heads, his primary nemeses are his own two truly awful, horribly spoiled sons, Ronny and Donny, (Ronnie McCawley and Keith McCawley) who bully and run roughshod over their father and anyone who gets in the way of their getting their way. What?
Olivia Williams, whom you couldn't possibly remember for her role in Kevin Costner's minim opus "The Postman" - because you didn't see it - is nicely cast as the romantic anchor for the triangular plot. Reasonably mature, very attractive and the teacher you always wanted in grade school, but never got; she's just vulnerable enough to be allowed her emotional baggage, but has the strength to keep the two warring suitors at bay - for a while, anyway.
Ex-DEVO Mark Mothersbaugh's (Bottle Rocket) original soundtrack pieces add a quirky, almost alien edge to the proceedings, and Mason Gamble (Dennis the Menace) is rock solid as the one kid at Rushmore that accepts and defends Max.
You should see this movie - with me or without me. But if it's all the same to you, do you mind if I tag along? I'd really like to see it again. It's fun.
Four big ol' cows, kids.
"Rushmore" is an odd but winning combination of film themes - a dry, sardonic comedy about love and coming of age; an engaging, sometimes irritating look into the inner workings of the mind of a young Walter Mitty in full radiant flower of denial; and love and middle age seen through a glass dorkly. (No typo)
Jason Schwartzman is Max Fischer, a horn-rimmed 15 year-old unlikely scholarship student at an exclusive boy's school, Rushmore. He's not "gifted" in the usual sense. He finds himself on academic probation - his grades are truly miserable - but he has thrown all his efforts into several dozen extracurricular activities ranging from his eponymous theater group, The Max Fischer Players, to the Rushmore Beekeeping Club. His prime goal is to be a student for life at Rushmore. Max doesn't seem to realize or care that he's the mascot, poster boy and chief fund raiser for the Varsity Losers Team. He invents a neurosurgeon father to replace his dad the barber. Max's self image is warped, but heroic. Everyone knows, or has known, at least one Max Fischer.
The movie opens with Max dreaming, during a short snooze in chapel, that he's single-handedly solved the world's most vexing geometry equation, to the adulation of his peers. He snorts back to reality in time to hear a chapel address to the student body by Herman Blume, (Bill Murray) a depressed industrialist and benefactor to Rushmore. Max immediately attaches himself to Blume, and the two form an unlikely symbiotic relationship and eventual rivalry.
Enter Ms. Cross, (Olivia Williams) an elementary school teacher at Rushmore. Max talks himself into a blindingly lopsided love with Ms. Cross, who of course, diplomatically rebuffs his advances. Max, being totally out of touch with anything remotely resembling reality, refuses to take no for an answer. (Why does this sound familiar?) He's so purposely obsessive in his driven denial that you wonder if this whole movie is going to turn out to be an elaborate dream/flashback sequence. He goes so far as to con Blume into writing a check for the construction of a marine habitat at the school, (only because Ms. Cross has tropical fish in her classroom), and manages to make it as far as the ground breaking before the school administration finally catches on. (Max designed the aquarium to take over part of the baseball diamond) Max is expelled from Rushmore and goes back to the public school system, where he finally bottoms out, but rebounds and finds his true strengths are almost as good as the ones he's always imagined for himself.
In the meantime: Herman Blume falls head-over-failed marriage in love with Ms. Cross. When Max finds out, a battle of sophomoric one-upsmanship and retaliatory blackmail ensues between rivals Max and Blume. Neither of these characters has the maturity of a wheel of gouda, and the war between Max and Blume is a pissing match between two myopic lovesick adolescents. Fortunately, no one dies in the name of love, and Max and Blume slowly grow to understand the folly of their actions. Slowly.
That's about as understated a synopsis as I can manage for a film of such subtlety and complexity. There are moments when you just want to dope-slap both Max and Blume like they were responsible for Adam Sandler getting into show business, and there are times when they seem so isolated, so lost, that you feel the need to pin a name tag to their shirts and send them off to school. It's less "schadenfreude" than "farhvegnugen" - you don't so much get enjoyment from their misery as you revel in the ride itself.
Some of the best moments come in the pure absence of dialogue - Max has a dorky countenance that actually pulls the camera closer (further exaggerating his already exaggerated features - he looks like a spectacled sea bird pulled from an arctic oil spill) every time he stares vacantly into it. You'll find yourself wondering if perhaps Max's hamster has pulled up lame and the wheel has slowed to a squeaking crawl. But as Max's character develops, you begin to marvel at the logical complexity of his machinations.
Murray's Blume is sometimes awkward, sometimes a bit distant and occasionally goofy, but in the becalmed moments when he's searching for his next move, you find yourself holding your breath in anticipation. Agonizingly perfect timing.
Bill Murray is perfect for the role of an angry, unhappy man who has everything and yet somehow, nothing. Until Blume and Max butt heads, his primary nemeses are his own two truly awful, horribly spoiled sons, Ronny and Donny, (Ronnie McCawley and Keith McCawley) who bully and run roughshod over their father and anyone who gets in the way of their getting their way. What?
Olivia Williams, whom you couldn't possibly remember for her role in Kevin Costner's minim opus "The Postman" - because you didn't see it - is nicely cast as the romantic anchor for the triangular plot. Reasonably mature, very attractive and the teacher you always wanted in grade school, but never got; she's just vulnerable enough to be allowed her emotional baggage, but has the strength to keep the two warring suitors at bay - for a while, anyway.
Ex-DEVO Mark Mothersbaugh's (Bottle Rocket) original soundtrack pieces add a quirky, almost alien edge to the proceedings, and Mason Gamble (Dennis the Menace) is rock solid as the one kid at Rushmore that accepts and defends Max.
You should see this movie - with me or without me. But if it's all the same to you, do you mind if I tag along? I'd really like to see it again. It's fun.
Four big ol' cows, kids.
